We are happy to announce that our new project has been funded by the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR). It focuses on the ongoing ruderalization of temperate oak forests – habitats that host some of the highest understorey plant diversity in the temperate zone, yet are increasingly threatened by drying and eutrophication.
We are excited to share the publication of three innovative articles that showcase our team’s cutting-edge research. Häusler et al. (2025) explore how managing light and nutrients can restore plant diversity in temperate woodlands, offering promising strategies for habitat recovery. Eusebio and Douda (2025) take a deep dive into ancient forests, using mid-Pliocene insights to predict future climate impacts, while Havrdová et al. (2025) reveal the challenges posed by an introduced pathogen and environmental change through a study of declining herbaceous species richness in wetland forests. Together, these studies underscore our commitment to advancing ecological understanding and developing sustainable conservation practices.
Rveg is an open-source package extension for the R statistical programming language, designed to facilitate the efficient and straightforward digitization of phytosociological relevés (vegetation plot observations) into plain comma-separated values (CSV) format. This format is easily importable into the R environment for data editing and analysis.
The thesis provides a complex insight into ongoing processes in Central European floodplain forests, one of the most threatened terrestrial ecosystems in the temperate zone. Floodplain forests are hotspots of biodiversity and provide many climate-related services of global importance. For these reasons, they have been identified as essential for climate change mitigation and key to human survival.
This publication provides readers with insights into how forest habitats have historically changed under European conditions and how these changes have affected the organisms that depend on forests or individual trees for their survival. The book includes descriptions of traditional practices as well as brief guidelines for ecological habitat restoration.